Kansas City redevelopment projects, such as plans for renovating the Linwood Shopping Center, get a lot of public attention. A council member wants to educate people about various redevelopment terms and policies. File photo by Joe Ledfordjledford@kcstar.com

Kansas City redevelopment projects, such as plans for renovating the Linwood Shopping Center, get a lot of public attention. A council member wants to educate people about various redevelopment terms and policies. File photo by Joe Ledfordjledford@kcstar.com

KC councilman plans education sessions on development

Is everyone on the same page when they talk about SuperTIFs, blight, CIDs and other terms that populate economic development discussions?

Kansas City Councilman Scott Taylor doesn’t think so.

As chairman of the council’s plans and zoning committee, Taylor intends to use his position to hold Development 101 sessions at the outset of each committee meeting at City Hall.

Taylor said he hopes to begin Wednesday at the committee’s 1:30 p.m. meeting. The committee sessions are televised on the city’s TV channel and are available for view on www.kcmo.gov after each meeting ends. Meetings are open to the public.

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“It’s evident that people have different understandings of development terms and topics,” Taylor said. “I want to share facts.”

Topics to be addressed at future sessions might include tax increment financing analysis, SuperTIF policy, findings of blight, the “but-for” analysis, explanation of the AdvanceKC scorecard that rates proposed redevelopment projects, and community improvement districts.

The councilman said he hopes to spend 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning of each committee meeting to cover one of the topics. But he recognized that some committee agendas are quite long, meetings sometimes run into the evening, and there could be opposition to taking the Development 101 time.